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Shades & Layers
Shades and Layers is a podcast focused on black women entrepreneurs from across the globe. It is a platform for exploring issues and challenges around business ownership, representation and holistic discussions about the meaning of sustainability in an increasingly complex global context. Conversations are wide- ranging and serve not only as a Masterclass in Entrepreneurship but also provide wisdom and tools for Successful Living. It is a space for meaningful conversation, a place for black and other women of color to be fully human and openly share their quirks and vulnerabilities.
Guests include prominent figurers in the beauty, fashion and wellness industries both in the Northern Hemisphere and the Global South.
Dr. Theo Mothoa-Frendo of USO Skincare discusses her journey from being product junkie to creating an African science-based skincare range. Taryn Gill of The Perfect Hair is a brand development whizz who discusses supply chain and distribution of her haircare brands. Katonya Breux discusses melanin and sunscreen and how she addresses the needs of a range of skin tones with her Unsun Cosmetics products.
We discuss inclusion in the wellness industry with Helen Rose Skincare and Yoga and Nectarines Founder , Day Bibb. Abiola Akani emphasizes non-performance in yoga with her IYA Wellness brand and Anesu Mbizho shares her journey to yoga and the ecosystem she's created through her business The Nest Space.
Fashion is all about handmade, custom made and circular production with featured guests like fashion designer Maria McCloy of Maria McCloy Accessories; Founder and textile/homeware designer Nkuli Mlangeni Berg of The Ninevites as well as Candice Lawrence, founder of the lighting design company Modern Gesture. These are just a few the conversations on the podcast over the past three years.
Shades & Layers
Change Agent Coaching with Alison Hall (S7, E5)
Ever felt trapped in the corporate hamster wheel, yearning for something more meaningful? Alison Hall, founder of Change Agent Coaching for Women and co-founder of the Boldest Me, certainly did and she joins me in this episode to share her remarkable journey.
It's not every day that you meet a corporate veteran turned personal trainer, real estate investor, and certified divorce financial analyst, and Alison's journey is nothing short of inspiring. She candidly discusses the role of self-worth in decision-making, how to overcome that pesky imposter syndrome, and the importance of following your passion. Alison's story serves as a powerful reminder that it's never too late to reinvent yourself and live the life you've always desired. Listen in to catch a glimpse of Alison's vision for her future and her wealth of advice for those embarking on their own journeys of self-discovery and change.
Alison's personal story of transitioning from a 25-year corporate career to becoming a successful entrepreneur is packed with valuable insights for anyone standing at the crossroads. She breaks down the unique challenges faced by women in their late 40s and early 50s, and the importance of harnessing your inherent strengths to break through societal expectations and carve your unique path.
Alison's coaching philosophy is deeply rooted in the belief that every woman can transform their lives regardless of age. Her holistic approach to life coaching challenges you to take your ego out of the equation and reassess your life choices. We delve into a much-neglected stage of women's development during their transitional years and discuss how Allison's one-on-one coaching and group-based retreats foster self-awareness and personal growth. Whether it's a career change, a divorce, or any other life-altering experience, Allison's guidance helps women to navigate these waters with grace and competence.
LINKS AND MENTIONS
Whitehall Divorce Solutions - https://whitehalldivorcesolutions.com/
Alison Hall Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonhall-coach-women/
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Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, Guduanos Kosanarichi. This episode is for all you career girls contemplating your next steps, whether you're ready or only halfway to taking a leap into your next season, this episode will have you wanting to pursue that fulfillment you're looking for. My guest is Allison Hall, founder of Change Agent Coaching for Women and co-founder of the Bullest Me, which is a woman-focused personal empowerment brand. Allison spent 25 years climbing the corporate ladder, something she enjoyed very much, until she felt stuck and was no longer having fun. So she took a leap into entrepreneurship, starting a couple of women-centered businesses selling one along the way, and now using what she's learned while working with career women to help others get unstuck.
Speaker 1:Allison is a certified CPA and draws on this background, as well as her corporate experience, to guide women through life transitions such as divorce and career change. Her mission is to help you discover your strengths and kick out any societal expectations, self-doubt, burnout and reinvent yourself to craft the life you truly want. Her motto is it's never too late to chase your dreams. With just one life to live, it's time to unleash your potential. This is Allison's story. Please describe your work and what the deeper attachment you attach to these activities.
Speaker 2:Okay, sure, I am currently the I guess founder and owner of Change Agent Coaching and it started out. I won't bore you with the details of where I began, but where I am right now is I work with women who are in transition and predominantly women who are somehow affected by divorce. Interestingly, my parents were never divorced. I've never been divorced, but somehow I've become mired in the industry. It was almost as if I just found that while there are plenty of attorneys and plenty of CPAs I happen to be a CPA as well but there weren't people helping women specifically really get equitable divorces and come out feeling, if not better than when they went into the marriage, at least whole. That's kind of what I do now, and I have a partner who's a psychologist and we have developed another firm that's called the Boldest Me and it's dedicated to all things personal development for women, and particularly women affected by divorce.
Speaker 1:How did you come to this work? Did you fall into it? Or yeah, what happened?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would love to say that I had some grand epiphany, and yet I'm reluctant to say I fell into it. To be honest again, I'm a CPA and I had a corporate career and when I finished that of my own volition, I was just looking for something else where I could use some of my skills and talents, but in a different way, a much more personal way, less big structure and more one-on-one. I became a certified financial analyst, which is somebody who specifically helps people getting divorced figure out their finances and where they're right now, where they're going to go in the future, those sorts of things. I got into that end of it and, as I was working with clients, I ended up working predominantly with women and what I found was that they needed more personal assistance than you can just get from maybe your friends and family. I needed to be somebody who could be objective, but it was also knowledgeable about some of the decisions that you need to make. That's how it kind of evolved into both coaching, and I still work with my financial clients as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, I see you mentioned that it's women in transition. Of course, divorce is a huge transition. Which other transitions are you dealing with in your business?
Speaker 2:Yeah, interestingly, some of them go hand in hand. Very often I work with women who not only are either going through divorce or have recently, but also have either had an epiphany and decided that they need a career change, have been edged out of a particular career path or an industry or just a company, and are looking to make change. Typically, they've already tried to do some of this work themselves, but you just get bogged down and afraid. Right, I ended up working with people trying to just get them to open the blinders and look at the bigger picture and not make decisions and plan for your life based on fear.
Speaker 1:I'm interested in that part about edged out of a career. What happens there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there have been certainly plenty of articles about it, but it doesn't matter if there's an article that's been written about it or a news story. When it happens to you, it just feels devastating and you're the only person who matters. And that's so true. Very often, women I mean it's still true Women get paid a fraction of what men get paid in similar jobs or the exact same jobs.
Speaker 2:Very often, most large companies, particularly even smaller ones, are cones. They go up to the top. That means that there are very few people at these other levels. That means that for every job there's competition Very often. I mean sure, there are lots of C-suite women, lots of women who are extraordinarily successful, but it doesn't negate the fact there are lots of women who also get edged out and perhaps put on the back burner. Maybe your career isn't moving at the same trajectory as a male counterpart and it makes you feel as if you're not going where you want to go, because you're not. I work with women who maybe haven't necessarily completely been fired, although sometimes I do work with women who are fired or at least downsized.
Speaker 2:But when you see that your career isn't going the way that you had planned your master plan, you know that's a great opportunity to just kind of take stock and see about making some changes. So those are the people I typically work with.
Speaker 1:You know, a controversial one, but you know, do you think that there is a limit to how far you can get in corporate as a woman?
Speaker 2:I think that is it. That's a great question and I think you know I wouldn't put an absolute yes or no on it, but I do think there are limitations and I think those limitations, as I was just saying, are born out in the numbers. Right, while the numbers of C-suite women and women CEOs and women who are running things in corporate America continues to rise the numbers continue to rise I still think that men edge out women over and over and over again. As much as we talk about how women get preferential treatment, or, you know, people of color are getting more preferential treatment, the numbers still just don't bear that out.
Speaker 2:And I think that also, a lot of the women that I work with I didn't kind of say this a lot of the women that I work with ultimately are sort of toying with or putting their toe in the water, of thinking about entrepreneurship or working for themselves, for that very reason, because they have the skills to make it to do what it is that they want to do. But they're accustomed to working in corporate America and it's a you know, it's a big jump and so it takes some examination. It's not everybody's cut out for it. It takes some examination but, to your point, a lot of women, you know they're probably.
Speaker 2:I think I read a statistic that there are more successful women entrepreneurs than there are men, and you know for capita I would say there's a, because that's where you have the opportunity to show and grow and do things the way you want to do them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I wonder how much age plays, what role it plays? Is it a huge factor in this?
Speaker 2:edging out, yeah, that's I mean yeah, you're asking all the things that that's exactly the demographic of women that I work with, women who have very often been aged out, but that's not something that a company is ever going to say to you because, well, they can't right, that's not legal.
Speaker 1:It would not be legal to do that, no.
Speaker 2:But it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen right. So I work predominantly with women, probably in their mid to late 40s, and definitely 50s and 60s, you know, because very often I've worked with women who have held on, you know, and held high level positions in the hopes of moving even higher, but they've gotten into their 50s and 60s and either they have been edged out in some way not overtly, but in some way edged out by somebody younger or by a man who may have been in the same age group.
Speaker 1:Mm, I mean, yes, I understand that you can be aged out or edged out of your career, but then not everyone is cut out for entrepreneurship, right? So what do you advise those clients to do? How do you navigate that space?
Speaker 2:You know, for me. For me it's kind of twofold because first, a lot of the clients that I work with, particularly coming from corporate America, you know there's a self worth attached to your title and what you do and your background, your education, yes, and your self worth is built around that. You may also be a mom and a spouse and things like that, but from a career perspective, this is who you are, and so one of the first things that we tend to kind of work on is why is your self worth attached to that? What is it really attached to? What's really important to you?
Speaker 2:And if you only have one life, you know, how is it that you want to conduct that life? What is it that you want to be important? What do you want your purpose to be, even if you're not sure about what your passion is, because we talk a lot about passion in the world generally but not everybody knows what that is and some people it's almost like a dirty word, like I don't have a passion, who am I? Kind of thing. But we tend to we start out with kind of trying to figure out what's important to you. And if you start to take ego out of things, you know, if your self worth isn't attached to what you're doing, and it makes it a lot easier to look around you and kind of see what your passions are or what you feel compelled to do.
Speaker 2:Because ultimately, we end up trying to find a marriage between you know, having some purpose in your life, right, but also making a living, doing something that somebody in the world needs of you and using skills that you either have which is great if you can use skills that you have, whether you've been using them or not previously or skills that you could gain pretty easily, you know. So that marriage, that's what we try to talk about. The first thing again is to kind of let go of the ego and stop. You know, it kind of changed the story, the narrative that you've had up until now. It served you up until now, until it didn't, and now it's time to write a new chapter. It sounds kind of trite, but that's kind of the way I look at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when women come to you, they're trying to write this new chapter and you know, it feels to me that there is a neglected stage of development in a life cycle, especially women's life cycle, and there's a lot happening. There's space of, you know, women in their late 40s, early 50s. You know there's coaching, there are retreats there. You know, just all these find yourself again. What's happening? What happened? You know some, suddenly it's being recognized.
Speaker 2:You know why? You know why I think? I think it's because there's a whole generation of women, multiple generations of women, for whom those early years are defined by other things, defined by it could be career or what are the people's expectations are around your career, it could be family, it could be spouse or all those things combined. And I just don't think. I think that there are younger generations coming in who are thinking constantly about those things. They are very self-aware, they work on personal development from the routines. I just think that women who are now or recently have come into the 40s, 50s, 60s, that just wasn't something in their early years they spent time thinking about. They had other priorities that were already lined out for them and then, as you raise your families or you kind of plateau in your career, then suddenly it's a come to Jesus time, if you will.
Speaker 1:You know Right, right.
Speaker 2:What is my life?
Speaker 1:What am I?
Speaker 2:supposed to do now? Yeah, exactly right, my kids aren't here or they soon won't be, or they don't need me as much. And I have this job that maybe I like I don't even know I never really thought about whether I love it. I think it's just a moment of self-reflection and we look in all different corners, because I know better than anybody else in that regard. I've taken my fair share of let's find yourself kind of retreats when I was younger and things like that Right. I don't think I ever really did to that degree, it was just. It gave me the opportunity to have a good vacation and just think about myself and nobody else. So, yeah, right, right.
Speaker 1:A nice little break. Yeah, exactly, hey, we need those now and again, you know. So how do you work with your clients? Is it one-on-one, Is it group sessions? How do you organize that offer?
Speaker 2:Yeah, with change agent coaching I work with people one-on-one and that's just because that's the way I began it. Like I said, I really wanted to work with people individually the boldest me we created. Because, again, my partner is a psychologist and she has her own clinical psychology thing going on, but there's only so many clients she can see and with my coaching there's only so many one-on-one clients I can see. And we became partners in this because we were referring people back and forth, because sometimes you need coaching and sometimes you need therapy.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you need both.
Speaker 2:And then we decided this would be a great opportunity to put these things together, but in a more group-based kind of fashion. So the boldest me is group-based retreats, things like that. Yeah, the retreats.
Speaker 1:The retreats. Yes, I think it's a fantastic having a quiet space to, because nobody does that, you know, even now, with the young women getting into this self-assessment, et cetera, I don't think there's enough quiet space.
Speaker 1:I agree, I completely agree so much, so much distraction, so much distraction. Alison Hall is the founder of Change Agent Coaching for Women and co-founder of the Boldest Me. She is my guest today on Shades and Layers, sharing her journey into entrepreneurship and how she helps women to discover their strengths and create the lives that they truly want to live Up. Next, we discuss the businesses she started before her latest ventures, and she has some words of wisdom for you. If you've been thinking about making a big change, tell us about your first venture into entrepreneurship. How did this journey start for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't say that I burned out of corporate America. I sort of, I like to say I kind of rusted out, you know.
Speaker 1:I just looked up one day. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like not ripping and running, because I had kind of tempered my career. I was traveling quite a bit and I was tired of that, but that wasn't really it. I just realized that I honestly didn't care about what I was doing. I just didn't care. I was good at it, I could do it by rote, you know, get the job done. But I just didn't care and I just thought it can't, this can't be everything right.
Speaker 2:And I was fortunate that, you know, I had the opportunity to kind of take my time to think about what I wanted to do next, and I was already at the time this was years ago, but at the time, you know, it was into fitness, and so I thought, well, why don't I become on? So, on the side, I became a personal trainer, right, I mean, I just earned the right, you know, and that's what was the first thing when I resigned and, you know, went on my merry way. After 25 years in corporate America. I became a personal trainer very specifically for women in corporate America who are overworked, don't have enough time, and it made if they wanted to work out, they needed somebody to come to them, or it would be more convenient if somebody came to them, and so that's what I did.
Speaker 2:And you know, of course, I knew plenty of these women. It was a very easy switch. I will say the funniest thing that I had to get over was myself about it, because I immediately realized, wow, I used to be one of them, now I'm just the trainer, you know. So I had to get on that one, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but it does offer this shine. You know, being in a corporate environment, there's something prestigious about that and it is designed that way, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'll tell you, you know, and to further ingrain it, at least for me, one of the things my father used to every time I'd get a promotion or I moved to a new company. The one thing he always wanted was one of my business cards, which I mean, what a way to put a stamp of approval and keep me believing that it was important.
Speaker 1:You know Right right, Of course it is, but not that important. No not at all. Yeah yeah, but so from fitness did you transition into this business?
Speaker 2:You're in of coaching development. Yeah, a couple of iterations in between. So the coaching business went really well, much better than I really just thought. I would be an individual trainer, you know, but I then had to add other trainers and it got to the point where all I was doing was managing trainers. So I was fortunate enough to have one trainer who really had a passion for the business.
Speaker 2:I didn't have a passion for the business, I just liked the training part and I was able to sell her the business and I would, you know, help with the finances and things like that. But so I extricated myself from that, had a great time but found somebody else who enjoyed it even more and I moved into. I started a real estate investment business and that's where I started and I was working with women, you know, women who, helping them invest in investment properties, doing it myself. But I was working with my clients were people I had known in corporate America and it tended to be women generally.
Speaker 2:And in working with them I mean I was a CPA, as I mentioned, but that wasn't what I'd done in my career, I just happened to be a CPA. So I started using my financial skills to help them with their finances and things too, and then many of them ended up being involved some kind of way in divorce. That's how I got. I thought, well, the certified divorce financial analyst thing would really help me help them more. And so I started another business, whitehall Divorce Solutions, which I still run, and that's where I help people very specifically with their financial needs relative to the divorce.
Speaker 1:So everything's been an iteration of one kind or another, yeah, so I like that it all builds on one another right. And what do you think it is that made it successful or that made the transition so easy? Was it just skills attitude? What is it that made these transitions so easy for you or manageable?
Speaker 2:Or manageable, I think manageable is more accurate. It's sort of like what do they say about ducks or swans or something gliding along the water with feet paddling underneath?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's.
Speaker 2:I think that's every entrepreneur's kind of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly Quite right, great analogy yeah.
Speaker 2:But I think skill, I mean I'm a very prepared type of person. I really don't just launch into things if I don't have any idea of what I'm doing. In fact, maybe, like you and so many people, I tend to over prepare. You know, I'm not launching off until I'm ready. But so from skill level, I was never concerned or worried about that.
Speaker 2:I think attitude just a sense of curiosity. You know I'm always curious about people's lives. That's why I wanted to work with individual people. I'm curious about what you know.
Speaker 2:I don't just come at all of the people that I've worked with across my companies. I don't come at them with one size fits all kinds of solutions. I'm very curious about what landed you here. What are we really trying to accomplish those sorts of things? And I think that even being a coach, I mean, there's some skills that are needed, but a lot of those skills are listening and helping people interpret their own thoughts.
Speaker 2:It's not up solutions, it's just like training. Right, all of us know what it is that we're supposed to do. You just need some motivation, someone to hold you accountable, someone to give you some new ideas to keep it fresh. That's all of these things that I do art Now, maybe with the things with CPA and financial things, I do find that a lot of women I don't want to speak for all women, but a lot of the women I've worked with are not very well versed in their personal finances or the family finances. That's one thing I found, but other than that, most people have the skills that they need to get where they want to go. It's just helping them kind of get out of their own way Really you know Right right, oh, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1:And what helped you in terms of growing as a leader? Do you have mentors yourself, coaches, et cetera?
Speaker 2:You know, I guess I've had a personal life coach or anything like that. I've been fortunate in my corporate career. Just because of the nature of corporate America works, you tend to have mentors, whether you like it or not. I've had some planned ones and some unplanned ones, you know, and some were better than others, but I've been fortunate to have people who just gave good advice or, yeah, people who gave good advice, or bosses who were kind and welcoming and unthreatened. You know, I think a threatened boss is not one who's going to be particularly helpful, but if you can have a boss who feels as if they're going somewhere, then they have no qualms about you going somewhere as well.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, that's a good thing to look out for. Yes, so preparation, mentors and curiosity you know tools, the actual hardcore tools that have helped you along the way. Any productivity hacks you would say have been helpful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not sure about productivity hacks per se, but I am a big believer in if there's an app that will do it, let the app do it. I'm a big believer in if there's somebody who knows how to do this, and I'm going to have to learn how to do it. In other words, I outsource a lot of things and you know I've had earlier in my career or my entrepreneurial career. I had a lot of conversations with myself where I'm fighting with my internal self, saying, yeah, but you can figure out how to do it, it would be cheaper, and da-da-da. And finally, after you know, lots of trial and error, I finally have gotten to the point where, again, if it's something that I need to learn and it's not core to me doing what I do, then I need to outsource this. What not?
Speaker 2:And I don't mean like whatever the cost, it's just that it tends to be less expensive, both in time and money, to let professionals do what professionals do. And it's so easy now up work and you know, you know you can find people to do all these side gig things. I have worked with people women who are entrepreneurs and who are not reprisings. We end up working on their business as part of trying to find out where they're going, because they've gotten so enmeshed in doing everything themselves. I just find that's not productive and it's not really moving you forward. In fact, it's almost kind of a way to avoid doing what it is you actually need to be doing.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what's the first thing you would advise somebody to do if they were dreaming of leaving their corporate job and getting into a business or something that they've been passionate about?
Speaker 2:Two things. One I think you kind of alluded to this a little bit. Talk to people. I think we often get in our heads and just get ideas. I have a million ideas a day. I'm sure you do too, of things I could do Just walking around the world and you see something like I could knit cardigans. I mean there's a million things that we could all do.
Speaker 2:But A are you good at it? And B is there a market for it, like I said before. But also go out into the world, the only way you're going to know. You can Google to the COWS Component, but you can also go out into the world and you can get on any of your social media sites and just talk to people who are doing different things, even have coffee with somebody. You could have a real live meeting with somebody who's doing whatever it is that you think you're interested in. If it gets to the point where, yeah, I really am kind of interested in this Most people unless you have a good six to 12 months of income stacked up not everybody does.
Speaker 2:If you do great, go forth and conquer, do whatever it is that you want to do, but if you don't I mean I think we live in the side gig environment there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, people are thriving doing multiple things. So do the thing on the side. If it still keeps your attention over time and you start making money doing it, okay, it's a legitimate thing that you could make your primary. But I'm not you know, I'm not the jump off the bridge kind of advisor. Yeah, just yeah. Have a passion. Just go for it, just follow your passion.
Speaker 1:It's a terrible thing. Oh, your passion Blindly. Yeah, I'm practical. Yeah, All right. All right, we're listening to Shades and Layers with Kutluanos Kwasanarichi Up. Next we get into Allison Hall's personal story the biggest influences in her life, the best advice she's ever been given and what she recommends for getting past your imposter syndrome, as well as what she sees for herself in the future. So let's get into your own personal story. Something must have shaped you into the person that you are today. Can you share three things that have been instrumental in shaping how you carry yourself in the world today? It can be people, incidents, etc.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, this is something that I would advise people to think about more, about you know because I don't really think about it too much myself, but I do kind of ask my clients to, and I should say my own advice. I know that well, I'm an only child. My parents were both, you know, white collar professionals. My mother's an attorney, my father was a physician, but he worked in corporate America. Okay, so they, you know, I just always grew up kind of it was always assumed that I would go to college. There's never any talk about that, you know will she, won't she whether?
Speaker 2:I'm going to or not. That was that, and there was just an assumption in my mind I don't think anybody ever said it that I would either be an attorney or go into corporate America. Really they weren't entrepreneurs. There weren't a lot of, you know, big thoughts and ideas around all the kinds of things you could do. I mean, every once in a while my mother would throw out something you know that was off the cuff like you should be a journalist. You know, like I don't know what you know nothing.
Speaker 2:I have no training, but thanks for that, you know, but my parents were always very supportive of everything I wanted to do, so I I spent many years of my career just trying to do what I thought was the right thing. Right and I knew, and I knew that moving up and getting bigger promotions and making more money, those were the things that I was supposed to do, and so I did it. I wasn't wildly unhappy, I was just sort of meh meh meh neutral, you know.
Speaker 2:I made enough money to enjoy my life. So I figured that was, that was great. So it wasn't until it was later, when my parents cared less honestly, cared less about what I did and care more about my own happiness, that I started to think about, and so it's sort of a backward shaping, I suppose, but I felt freer to do and think about things that I really wanted to do, and that's and I think, going back to a question you had before about, you know, women of a certain age or something. I think, again, that's what happened to me. I was just kind of living the life I thought I was supposed to and then I was like, well, isn't it like I could do something else? Or there's more or whatever.
Speaker 2:And then I had some successes that were very personal to me, like, again I said, I never practiced as a CPA, I mean when I first got out of school, right, but I got a CPA because I wanted to see if I could pass the exam on the first go. You know, it was just an internal thing Because even though I was successful on the outside of a peer that way, I really didn't have a lot of self confidence. So I put little tests in front of myself to, you know, kind of make me feel like I burned some of the things that I had, and it sounds weird, but I think people can realize that a little bit Women do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I can't say that there are any other big things that influenced me. It's just incremental feelings of self worth that improved and improved over time, with little things that I did, that I knew I did. I was the only one who had something to do with it, you know, and just sort of built up to the point where I was like I can make any decision I want. I really don't need anybody else's approval. And when I got to that point, that's when I felt like the world was my oyster. I don't think my dad was wildly by the time I became a personal trainer. If I had done it earlier, he would have been like do you have a stroke? What are you thinking, you know.
Speaker 1:But by the time I did it he was less.
Speaker 2:you know, he was like okay, I have all the business cards stacked up here, they just find you.
Speaker 2:She's done the thing she's done, it Carry on, but you know. And so since then I felt I'm so happy generally, because I know that if I get tired of doing what I'm doing and I don't see that coming, because I get to deal with different people every day, and it's just great, my time is my own, even though I'm kind of busy, you know, but I'm busy in a way that I want to be busy. So I think, yeah, not the biggest things, and I can't give a specific time period, but not caring what other people think and not making decisions based on what I think other people think. And one of the phrases that I love a friend of mine says most people care more about the mole on the back of their head than what you're doing, and I love that.
Speaker 1:You know, it's so true. That's a great thing to keep in mind. And that brings me to you know the best advice you have been given and that you live by to this day.
Speaker 2:The best advice I've been given. Well, yeah, you know, I had a boss once who said you know, if this isn't something you want to do, find, find something you do want to do and that can sound one way or the other Like if this is the one you want to do. It wasn't like that. It was said in a way like you know, if you don't have a passion for this or you don't see yourself going somewhere with this, find something else. You know, life's too short and I know we all say life's too short very often, so it becomes kind of a muted thing in our minds. But it is true, you know. I mean unless, unless there is a second life where I get a do over. I'm not sure about that. I've got to do everything I'm going to do right here and now. The other thing that I kind of I would like other people to live by and I try to myself Is it?
Speaker 2:Everything that you hear in your head Isn't necessarily true. You know, all those thoughts that ratchet through your head very quickly, all those people you know call it the inner critic or whatever, the inner voice or all that kind of stuff. It's just the people or the person's talking in your head. Everything they say isn't always true. You know I'll never find another job. Well, is that true? Probably will. You know. We have so many negative thoughts. I read I'm sure you know the statistic. I read the statistic about the number of negative thoughts that we have every single day.
Speaker 2:So yeah my thing is to try to hear them, but you don't have to listen to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, right. And how. I would say you know it leads to imposter syndrome. I would say, like, listen to those and how do you advise people to get over that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, with clients it's all about. It's right. It's about writing it down, like if you can catch a thought, if catch a thought, write it down. Catch a thought, write it down. And it's kind of laborious and people don't really enjoy doing it. But then later in the day, when you go back to reflect, for every one of those that you saw write the opposite, what could the opposite truth be? Or what could be? Yeah, let's assume that's not true. What could be true? What's the kind?
Speaker 1:What could be true. Yeah, yeah, wonderful, that's great. So what? Right now you are having fun, you're curious, you're still learning. It's amazing times. So what's your vision for the next while you know, the next few years, as you work with these clients and they are launching their bold lives?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope they will watch their bold lives.
Speaker 2:You know, continue to do that. I hope I will continue to be a part of it and make it more and more. Just because the world has become more and more remote, I hope we'll have more live events, but also I will be able to work as remotely as I can and help people in that way, because I would love to. I would love to have an animal sanctuary. So, on a big plot of land, I don't want to save tigers or elephants or anything that I don't know anything about. It's like cats and dogs and you know your average kind of run of the mill animals that get unhomed. So that's my plan, and so to have enough space for that, I need to be a little outside of, you know, your average big city limits. So, yeah, so that's my, that's my big plan.
Speaker 1:Moving further out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 1:My husband's trying to convince me. I'm not ready. I still love the city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do want to be within driving distance, I will say yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Great, and where can people find you if they want to work with you or find out more about your work?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean I answer all of my own emails. So Allison with one L at change age at coaching, or Allison at the boldest mecom, and you can find me on LinkedIn. I don't post a lot but I'll read everything that somebody sends me. So that's also Allison Hall coach women.
Speaker 1:So wonderful, yeah, wonderful, that is great. Is there anything else that people should know about you?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so. If they're really interested, you know, hit me up, get in touch yeah.
Speaker 1:Great, great. And that is all from me today. Thank you for listening. You will have noticed something different about this episode. Do drop me an email on hello at shades and layerscom and let me know what it is, or just say hello. If you liked this episode, then please go ahead and share it with someone. Thank you, I'm Guthwanis Khosanna Ritchie. Until next time, please do take good care.
